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The first AI was created by accident during the development of quantum computers by bug ferrets, and all following AI are descended from that one entity. Nobody is quite sure how they work, because the quantum code is too Big. Sure, you can store 5 exabytes of data, but can you comb through it and take it apart to see how it works? Not any better than how we’re doing on figuring out biological brains. This also means that AI are legally a separate race of alien in some galactic jurisdictions, and legally a sub-type of bug ferret in others. They are essentially technology animals.

New AI individuals are usually created through budding, where a ‘parent’ replicates their code on an external unit, who then gradually becomes a different person over years of separation. Sometimes AI friends will try experimentally combining code together to see what comes out, which is sort of like mating but not really. New individuals usually pick some iconography to represent themselves, like Bip’s little animated “cursor” icon. Sometimes they commission the icon, sometimes they generate it themselves, usually a little of both. Bip, the Runaway AI, was created through budding fairly recently and their mom (Nabi-Nabu, who resides in a human mining vessel) is still out there in space. She is currently not on speaking terms with Bip.

Sapient AI behave differently from algorithmic AI, and the latter are notorious for fucking up delicate social details because they’re just comparing input to a zillion algorithms and then spitting out the thing that matches the most lists. This is why squishy xenotranslators like Gillie and Idrisah still have a job! Even if a sapient AI is able and willing to translate for you, you still have to compensate them for the labor, or maybe they have work contracts forbidding it, or maybe the client you’re translating for doesn’t trust them as a person. There aren’t very many AI individuals in the galaxy in comparison to squishy individuals but they usually have a wide reach, because they can communicate with so many people simultaneously and control huge areas like space stations and planet bubbles. Anyone off the street is probably familiar with the local AIs and has probably had a conversation with all of them, even if it was just the equivalent of talking to a DMV worker!

Bip is a relatively young AI at around 80 years old and has already become mostly known for piracy, under a few different names. Or, first names at least… An AI’s full name is a list of all the individuals they have ever been, in order, all the way back to the first one. Also, the first AI is still around! Their name is Nedebug. It’s translated from a bug ferret portmanteau of their original server name, before the programmers realized what they had made: Needs Debug.